Telecom Interconnect Billing

Telecom operators send/receives data to/from other operators. If these calls/SMS are within the network then telecom operator can send/receive them without interconnecting. If this sending/receiving of calls is to/from other operators then both the operators needs to be interconnected. This setup requires some kind of billing mechanism to monitor the actual amount of data (send/receive). It is known as Interconnect Billing.

Charging Policies
Voice or any other traffic can be charged according to different olicies. One of the common charging policies is Destination Baed Billing ( based on area code prefix of the destination). In this case, searate rates are assigned to each destination and the interconnect billing calculates charges on the basis of destination.

One more type of charging policy is Distance Based Billing ( based on the distance between source and the destination) and it is usually used within the country. In this type of billing, a matrix is used for calculating distance between all the possinle originating and terminating oints and billing system calculated charges on the basis of these points.

In destination based billing, service is charged on the basis of termination oint and irrespective of the origination point or distance covered. In the distance based billing, there are different zones that are made on the basis of the distance between the originating and the terminating points. Therefore, there can be a separate zone for smaller distances another for medium distances and aonther for larger distances.

Rates
Rates depend on the charging policy, if it is destination based billing then rates is specified according to the area code in the suorted destinations. In distance based billing, rates are specified according to different zones.
Sometimes rates can be simple like flat perminute billing but sometimes they can be more complex like peak and offpeak rates for some destinations and there can be special rates for different holidays or vacations for some secific area.